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vol. 49 num. 1 lang. enhttp://www.scielo.org.za/img/en/fbpelogp.gifhttp://www.scielo.org.za
Hein Willemse en Steward van Wyk]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100001&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
'Jy is die vertolker': die lewensloop van Adam Small]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100002&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
Language and silence: persoonlike herinneringe aan Adam Small, die digter-intellektueel]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
Adam Small: family histories, beginnings and earlier influences]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100004&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
This article answers the question: Where does the Afrikaans essayist, dramatist and poet, Adam Small, hail from? It proceeds to examine the genealogy of Small and the early influences of his family. The writer's recent family history is traced to his direct forebears, Adam and Siela Dampies in the early 19th century, and his grandparents Adam and Nellie Dampies. The article further explores the vagaries of name changes in the instance of the Dampies/Small family, the writer's multicultural parental background and his early years in rural and urban settings. In this respect influences on the young writer, emanating from these circumstances, are alluded to. Besides the genealogical information gained from archival research, the article relies methodologically on oral sources, informal accounts and personal recollection. It is found that the extended Small family established a relatively comfortable middle class lifestyle and they were involved at the same time in church and social relief projects. The young Adam Small grew up in a household where values such as social commitment and multi-cultural tolerance were honoured.Adam Small, Kanna and 'that moral moment']]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100005&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
This essay revisits Adam Small's best known play Kanna hy kô hystoe ("Kanna he comes home", 1965) in order to evaluate its relevance for contemporary readers and audiences. The text, considered one of the classics of Afrikaans literature, is analysed from a rhetorical point of view. The analysis includes an overview of several pertinent academic studies on the play, a summary of the play's sociopolitical context, and a brief background to rhetorical analysis. The article further takes account of the author's struggle with his prevailing cultural and political environment before and during the writing and publication of the play, as well as the drawn-out period of five years before its eventual first professional performance, and its subdued reception by prominent Afrikaans literary critics. The second part of the article involves the identification and analysis of three rhetorical problems presented in the play: "Did Kanna act unethically by not returning 'home' after his studies?"; "Did Dickie deserve his death sentence?"; and "Who was responsible for creating the wretched circumstances which Makiet, who had always been caring, had to endure?"Representations of revolt in three plays by Adam Small: Kanna hy kô hystoe, Joanie Galant-hulle and Krismis van Map Jacobs]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100006&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
This article investigates the extent to which the title characters in three Adam Small plays represent dramatic and theatrical expressions of revolt. The title characters are Kanna (in Kanna hy kô hystoe), Joanie (in Joanie Galant-hulle) and Map (in Krismis van Map Jacobs). The discussion concludes that two forms of revolt dominate in these plays, namely expressions of overt and covert revolt. In his first play, Kanna acts the part of the reluctant intellectual, while politically inspired events compel Joanie Galant to face a personal and material void, without success. In the third play, Map Jacobs succeeds in resisting the legacy of his criminal past and his stay in prison by reclaiming his identity as a member of society. Apart from the title characters, the playwright also emerges as an invisible character in each play. He voices his revolt against political and social injustices by his representations in the written text, and in the fashion he determines how revolt should be portrayed on-stage. Among others, he uses procedures recognised as vehicles of revolt, such as elements from Brechtian theatre, satire, the silent character, laughter, culturally marked language that dismantles the authority of standard language, and body markingsAutobiography and memory as resistance in Adam Small's The Orange Earth]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100007&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
The Orange Earth is discussed here as a fictionalised autobiographical account in which the Afrikaans poet and playwright, Adam Small, reflects on the impact of apartheid, creating a counternarrative of a marginalised life during that political system. In the play, presented essentially as a play of ideas, the Coloured main character Johnny Adams, the fictionalised alter ego of the author, plants a bomb that kills a white child and much of the action involves his rationalization of his deed of terror. The play references the cultural and linguistic relationship between Coloured and white Afrikaans-speaking people, and the former's humiliation and exclusion under the apartheid policy. It is argued inter alia that Small's choice of English as a language of literary expression could be interpreted as part of a counterdiscourse on cultural disaffection and political disillusion just as his option of urban violence as a solution to apartheid, his "cry for citizenship", amounts to a desperate act rather than one of revolutionary violence. The article concludes with a discussion on the multiple meanings associated with the title that serves as a metaphor for the countermemory of Small's narrativeSê sjibbolet: an intertextual reading]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100008&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
This article pursues an intertextual reading of Adam Small's collection of poetry Sê sjibbolet ("Say shibboleth"). The collection is read alongside texts that refer to "shibboleth" in their titles i.e. works by Paul Celan, Jacques Derrida and Doris Salcedo. The analysis draws on the readings that these texts provide of the Biblical passage in Judges 12 and the possibilities for further analysis that they open up of Small's title poem and collection as well as the insights that they provide into his poetic and discursive utterances with regard to apartheid and Afrikaners. Corresponding features in the writing of Celan and Small are further explored to enlighten their views on language and poetics within past and present contextsIlluminating the neglected: a view on Adam Small's literary integration of Kaaps]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100009&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
This article examines the literary reflection of Kaaps in the oeuvre of Adam Small from the perspective of an egalitarian approach to linguistic diversity. According to this approach the standard and non-standardised varieties of a particular language, such as Afrikaans, should be regarded as linguistically equipollent and equally valid codes of communication. Alongside reflections on the dialectological and sociolinguistic nature of Kaaps as well as the contextualisation of Small's choice of Kaaps as literary medium, it is shown how Small's personal views on this variety of Afrikaans, the ways in which it is textually integrated and the portrayal of it's linguistic nature implicitly serve as demarginalising and destigmatising mechanisms. It is emphasised how Small's groundwork regarding the illumination of the intrinsic linguistic nature and functional sufficiency of Kaaps, have paved the way for Kaaps to be recognised as a potential feeder source in the re-standardisation of Afrikaans which appears to be imminent. This is viewed as one of Small's great historical contributionsLanguage and politics in the philosophy of Adam Small: some personal reflections]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100010&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
Small's philosophy draws its inspiration from the humanistic tradition of Western philosophical thinking. His appropriation of this tradition is especially evident in his reformulation of the western legacy of "philosophy-as-dialogue". From this perspective, Small proceeds by way of a linguistic turn, in which Kaaps (the language of "ordinary", "simple" so-called "coloured people") is presented as a worthy conduit of human reason in the pursuit of dialogue and justice in apartheid South Africa, in spite of numerous attempts over the years by racist-inspired scholarship to reduce the language to the level of ridicule and caricature. This article seeks to evaluate the philosophical merits of Small's linguistic turn, in which the "will-to-dialogue" is postulated as the normative context for exploring the question of the possibility of being-human in apartheid South Africa.A prophet for dignity? A theological perspective]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100011&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
This paper portrays the work of Adam Small as prophetic work. Three dimensions of the practice of prophetic speaking are described, namely prophetic envisioning, prophetic criticism and prophetic policymaking. Small's work is described in terms of these categories. During the struggle against apartheid and during the current quest for a new society of dignity, justice and freedom, Small's prophetic envisioning, prophetic criticism and self-criticism and his prophetic policymaking discourse is of immense importance. Amidst our struggle to build a new society his prophetic envisioning gives hope and inspiration. Amidst our anger about so many wrongs in society and the non-fulfilment of the vision of a new society, his prophetic criticism and self-criticism gives fortitude and courage. Amidst reservations about participation in complex and sophisticated public debates, public opinion-formation processes and public law-making processes, his prophetic policymaking discourse gives illumination and perspective.Tydskrif vir Letterkunde: 75 jaar]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100012&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
This paper portrays the work of Adam Small as prophetic work. Three dimensions of the practice of prophetic speaking are described, namely prophetic envisioning, prophetic criticism and prophetic policymaking. Small's work is described in terms of these categories. During the struggle against apartheid and during the current quest for a new society of dignity, justice and freedom, Small's prophetic envisioning, prophetic criticism and self-criticism and his prophetic policymaking discourse is of immense importance. Amidst our struggle to build a new society his prophetic envisioning gives hope and inspiration. Amidst our anger about so many wrongs in society and the non-fulfilment of the vision of a new society, his prophetic criticism and self-criticism gives fortitude and courage. Amidst reservations about participation in complex and sophisticated public debates, public opinion-formation processes and public law-making processes, his prophetic policymaking discourse gives illumination and perspective.'n Kort rit in 'n vinnige voertuig]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100013&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
This paper portrays the work of Adam Small as prophetic work. Three dimensions of the practice of prophetic speaking are described, namely prophetic envisioning, prophetic criticism and prophetic policymaking. Small's work is described in terms of these categories. During the struggle against apartheid and during the current quest for a new society of dignity, justice and freedom, Small's prophetic envisioning, prophetic criticism and self-criticism and his prophetic policymaking discourse is of immense importance. Amidst our struggle to build a new society his prophetic envisioning gives hope and inspiration. Amidst our anger about so many wrongs in society and the non-fulfilment of the vision of a new society, his prophetic criticism and self-criticism gives fortitude and courage. Amidst reservations about participation in complex and sophisticated public debates, public opinion-formation processes and public law-making processes, his prophetic policymaking discourse gives illumination and perspective.Charles Wynand Malan (1945-2011)]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100014&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
This paper portrays the work of Adam Small as prophetic work. Three dimensions of the practice of prophetic speaking are described, namely prophetic envisioning, prophetic criticism and prophetic policymaking. Small's work is described in terms of these categories. During the struggle against apartheid and during the current quest for a new society of dignity, justice and freedom, Small's prophetic envisioning, prophetic criticism and self-criticism and his prophetic policymaking discourse is of immense importance. Amidst our struggle to build a new society his prophetic envisioning gives hope and inspiration. Amidst our anger about so many wrongs in society and the non-fulfilment of the vision of a new society, his prophetic criticism and self-criticism gives fortitude and courage. Amidst reservations about participation in complex and sophisticated public debates, public opinion-formation processes and public law-making processes, his prophetic policymaking discourse gives illumination and perspective.Melvin Whitebooi (1956-2011)]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100015&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
This paper portrays the work of Adam Small as prophetic work. Three dimensions of the practice of prophetic speaking are described, namely prophetic envisioning, prophetic criticism and prophetic policymaking. Small's work is described in terms of these categories. During the struggle against apartheid and during the current quest for a new society of dignity, justice and freedom, Small's prophetic envisioning, prophetic criticism and self-criticism and his prophetic policymaking discourse is of immense importance. Amidst our struggle to build a new society his prophetic envisioning gives hope and inspiration. Amidst our anger about so many wrongs in society and the non-fulfilment of the vision of a new society, his prophetic criticism and self-criticism gives fortitude and courage. Amidst reservations about participation in complex and sophisticated public debates, public opinion-formation processes and public law-making processes, his prophetic policymaking discourse gives illumination and perspective.J. C. Kannemeyer (1939-2011)]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100016&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
This paper portrays the work of Adam Small as prophetic work. Three dimensions of the practice of prophetic speaking are described, namely prophetic envisioning, prophetic criticism and prophetic policymaking. Small's work is described in terms of these categories. During the struggle against apartheid and during the current quest for a new society of dignity, justice and freedom, Small's prophetic envisioning, prophetic criticism and self-criticism and his prophetic policymaking discourse is of immense importance. Amidst our struggle to build a new society his prophetic envisioning gives hope and inspiration. Amidst our anger about so many wrongs in society and the non-fulfilment of the vision of a new society, his prophetic criticism and self-criticism gives fortitude and courage. Amidst reservations about participation in complex and sophisticated public debates, public opinion-formation processes and public law-making processes, his prophetic policymaking discourse gives illumination and perspective.Achmat Davids places the Cape Muslims on the South African linguistic map]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100017&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
South Africa's Cape Muslim religious leaders creatively contributed towards the formation of Afrikaans linguistics, an issue that the South African academia seemed to have ignored and overlooked. By the beginning of the 20th century, the literary output of these religious leaders developed to form a unique genre of literature; a genre that is popularly referred to as "Arabic-Afrikaans" within the South African linguistic circles. Achmat Davids (1939-98), who may be regarded as the doyen of "Cape Islamic Studies," was among a handful of scholars who devoted much of his time to study carefully this type of literature. As a consequence of his labour, he produced one of the most significant contemporary works in South African linguistics. This review essay reflects upon the importance of Davids' path-breaking and invaluable study, which was recently co-edited by Hein Willemse and Suleman E. Dangor.http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2012000100018&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
South Africa's Cape Muslim religious leaders creatively contributed towards the formation of Afrikaans linguistics, an issue that the South African academia seemed to have ignored and overlooked. By the beginning of the 20th century, the literary output of these religious leaders developed to form a unique genre of literature; a genre that is popularly referred to as "Arabic-Afrikaans" within the South African linguistic circles. Achmat Davids (1939-98), who may be regarded as the doyen of "Cape Islamic Studies," was among a handful of scholars who devoted much of his time to study carefully this type of literature. As a consequence of his labour, he produced one of the most significant contemporary works in South African linguistics. This review essay reflects upon the importance of Davids' path-breaking and invaluable study, which was recently co-edited by Hein Willemse and Suleman E. Dangor.